SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

There has been a lot of talk about this recently. Now that http://soccertv.com/ (the Bible) has announced it, I'm confident enough to post it. Basically, if you were relying on FSC for your EPL, you're losing a few matches per week to Setanta. And no more PPV...

Seems like a wonderful excuse for a racist and sectarian party. The bloody World Cup just ended - can we at least have a few months off before the onset of meaningless friendlies again? Kudos to the Croats for the human swastika -- nice work...I'm sure it took a lot of organizational skills. -Sanford

Although this says there are three American captains now in the Bundesliga, it ain't true. Berhalter is captain of 1860 Munich, which is in Bundesliga 2. This is an official release from U.S. Soccer. Nice work, guys.

I always enjoyed watching Berbatov in the Bundesliga. He's got excellent poacher instincts and he can also score from outside the area. I think it was an astute purchase by Jol. Spurs now have an extremely potent strikeforce -- they will be fun to watch. -Sanford

This is fantastic. The last time Watford graced the EPL the only decent thing about watching them was waiting for the cameras to focus on Elton John in the Director's Box (which makes for a nice drinking game, mind you). Now we've got another Yank we can root for in England's top division and that'll make matches like Watford vs. Villa that much more interesting. -Sanford

Here's what Sanford Soccer Net's Chicago Correspondent Bab Sullivan had to say about the Community Shield. A link to the match report is below. -Sanford

Chelski played basically the same general lineup they did in Chicago and you can see why they may be headed toward the cliff. Essien is wasted in the Makelele role, Ballack doesn't fit the role of wide man in the diamond midfield (Lampard is a disaster in the same role) and Robben can't play centrally at all. Drogba and Shevchenko didn't play with each other at all. They don't really have the players to use the 4-3-3 that worked so well for them last year (at least not right now) but the midfield personnel they have is ill-suited to 4-4-2 as well, at least as presently constituted. Having said that, Shevchenko's goal was fantastic and you can see Chelski bagging at least one like that every game just because of their quality, but I can't see that roster working for them in Europe at all.

I mentioned these to a friend of mine the other day and she had not yet seen them. They were all over Germany and made my buddy Simona in Hamburg very happy. So in case you've not had a chance to gaze at the Italian Stallions, here they are... -Sanford